If you don’t choose the right type of web hosting for your website, you could lose potential traffic.
Web hosting is what stores your website on the server which makes it available for visitors on the internet. Hence why you should be really careful when choosing a web hosting service. Here’s what you need to know before you choose your web hosting!
What exactly is web hosting?
Say you’re buying a house. You would need a place to build that house before even considering the house itself. It’s pretty much the same for web hosting.
Before you get to create a website, you need a place on the internet that will store the website for you. It is the network root that allows your website to stay existent on the internet. It all starts with a server. The server is stored in a highly secure establishment called the Datacenter. The data center provides everything the server needs in order to function.
The server is also built with components like additional hard drives and power supply units for the security of the protection of your data. What you’re doing when you choose a type of web hosting is essentially purchasing disc space and bandwidth on the server.
When do you need it?
If you’re using a website builder like Wix or Weebly, the web hosting is being taken care of for you. This means you don’t need to worry about needing a web host. You need to keep in mind that having a domain name is NOT the same as having web hosting. The problem is that if your website by any chance has a lot of traffic coming from it, your website will simply be shut down. Obviously, this can be resolved, but it is really inconvenient and drives away potential customers
4 types of web hosting you need to know
Depending upon the requirements for your website, there are different types of web hosting. This is why you need to make sure that you choose the one that suits your website best.
Here is a guideline for each of their potential, so you can choose what’s best for you.
Shared hosting:
Imagine sharing a dorm room with a few other students. You all have a part of the dorm, but you share it as a whole. You also share the resources, like the electricity and the water.
That’s what it’s like with shared hosting. There’s a server that is shared between multiple other clients. It is the cheapest one of the bunch, mainly because the expenses are distributed among multiple people. Shared hosting is the best option if you are just a beginner. It is the cheapest, so you’re putting less at stake. It’s also a very user-friendly option, incredibly easy to use.
However, it does have its drawbacks. It’s more prone to security issues, making your data unsafe. Your website is also likely to stop if it encounters too much traffic, and it overall slows down the loading time of your website. If you’re new to creating a website and don’t know where you should invest, don’t have much traffic, or don’t need many resources then this should work out for you.
Virtual private server hosting
Now, imagine owning an entire apartment to yourself. Although you are using the same water supply and electricity as the rest of the building, you own an entire part of it to yourself.
That is how virtual private server hosting works. There is a main server that has been divided into multiple virtual servers, and you own one of them. it is affordable and more cost-effective than a dedicated server, which we’ll take a look at next.
With a VPS comes better security and faster loading time. You also build your website reliability because VPS can handle higher traffic, in other words, it won’t shut down.
A VPS is, however, more complicated to set up than shared hosting. It also requires more technical and system management knowledge for you to be able to run it.
This is great if you are a game maker or a programmer, and you can also look into VPS hosting if your traffic can not be handled by shared hosting.
Dedicated hosting
- Dedicated hosting.
Having dedicated hosting is like owning a house. You have your own resources and your own place, but owning an entire house does come with its expenses. It’s the same case with dedicated hosting. You get the expenses, but you also get the ownership. An entire server is dedicated to you, and you alone.
The site is always operating at its best since there’s no other website’s traffic disturbing yours. It has a higher level of security. So it’s great if you have a website that associates with sharing personal sensitive information (like financial transactions). Your site has great loading speed as well.
Again, you need to have technical knowledge in order to be able to use this web hosting. You are also in charge of updating and managing your website. It is the best type of web hosting for large online businesses that attract a lot of traffic on a monthly basis. It is especially great if you require sensitive information from your visitors so that you can ensure the protection of their privacy.
Cloud hosting
Cloud hosting is the most reliable type of web hosting on the internet. What it does is it replicates your sources onto different servers. Each server has a different job that is assigned to it.
If one of the servers encounters an issue, instead of your website shutting down, the traffic is automatically transferred to the next server. Your site will be able to perform great because it has low chances of being shut down, giving you greater flexibility.
This is great for websites that experience a lot of traffic on a monthly basis. It ensures the reliability of your website. If you own a high-traffic website, this is the best option for you. It ensures that your website will always be backed up by multiple servers.
How to choose the right web hosting for your website?
It’s important to know that there is no exact ‘right web hosting,’ it all varies from person to person depending upon the needs of your website.
You need to first make sure that the web hosting offers your CMS of choice and if they offer the customization features that you are looking to add to your website. Then you need to compare the plans and choose what suits your website best, depending on the amount of traffic that you receive monthly and the price range to be in your budget.
There’s a lot of thought that needs to be put in, in order to be able to choose the type of web hosting that is best for you. We hope we made that dilemma a little less stressful for you!
